Chance Encounters
by catfoxy
Summary: Ethan and Julia must have met somewhere. Here is my idea on what, where and how. The time-frame: from some time before MI3 to the end of MI:GP. Enjoy! :o


_Disclaimers: No copyright infringement intended. I was just curious to see how Ethan and Julia met. _

_Summary / Author's Note:_

_1.) This story plays sometime before the third movie, but kind of ranges all the way to the end of the fourth. You'll see what I mean. And please forgive me, but this is not beta'd. _

_2.) We all know they must have met **some**where. I think I read once that it was at a hospital, but please don't nail me on that, as my memory might be mistaken. Anyway, with her being a doctor, and him being an IMF agent, I kind of put one and one together. So, how do a doctor and an agent meet at a hospital? I think it might have happened a bit like this…_

**Chance Encounters**

"Hey Julie, you got a new one. Room 4, I think it's a broken knee."

Great. Just as she was about to get her first coffee of the day. Five hours into her shift.

She could practically see the friendly smirk on her colleague's face, as Drake jogged past her on his way to another emergency call down on first floor. They were a bit understaffed today up here on fourth floor, and with Drake being the only other doctor on call for emergencies downstairs, she found herself taking over several of Drake's cases today to make sure they weren't left waiting.

Luckily the fourth floor was almost exclusive to patients who had either already been through the emergency room, were fresh out of surgery or in need of assessment for further post-surgery treatment. It was just the right mix to keep her happy, and Drake knew she was more than capable of handling it, while he took care of the drama downstairs.

Hence the short-term sharing of patient's cases.

Which had apparently just landed her with patient number 11 for today. Oy.

'Okay, so much for coffee.'

Better to go and make that quick check-up on her new patient right away; if she took care of this now, it would give her the chance to take her much needed break as soon as she was done there. So she grabbed the relevant patient's folder from the rack on the wall and promptly started to walk down the corridor to room 4A.

On the way, she automatically began to familiarize herself with some of the patient's data. It always paid to know at least the general outline of a patient's injury before you entered their room. This one, apparently, had somehow managed to put one very elegant-looking break right down the middle of his knee cap. It had been put back together in surgery, but still...Ouch.

From the notes on the surgery report, it also looked like somebody had really kicked the hell out of that knee even before the break. Ligaments had been torn, bruises on bruises and … wait a minute, what was a recently healed knife puncture wound doing just above that same knee?

She looked up from the file with a frown.

'Okay, Mister. I don't know who you are, but you got my curiosity peaked.'

Not wanting to disturb the patient in case he was resting, she simply skipped the knock on the door, and quietly just opened the door to step inside. She was prepared to see a man on the bed, maybe sleeping, maybe even watching television.

What she saw, however, made her stop right inside the door, her hand still on the handle, as she wordlessly took in the sight before her.

This patient wasn't sleeping. Nor was he watching television. He wasn't even _in bed._

Her eyes narrowed unhappily, as she saw that apparently, this patient had decided to not only GET UP - on his injured knee, no less – but he had somehow also gotten himself a change of clothes from his locker. Which he was now trying to put to use.

As it happened, she had walked in just at the right time to find him struggling to try and get out of his hospital garb.

'You _gotta_ be kidding me…' Julia thought, as she wordlessly took in the calmly changing man before her. The man hadn't noticed her yet. Nope. Between pulling the hospital-issued paper-shirt just over and off his head, and trying to keep his balance at the same time, the man was clearly busy on his two feet.

'O-kay, buddy, if you think you can use the chaos here today to skip out on us unnoticed, you better think again.'

She waited another beat, just long enough for him to actually get rid of the shirt, and reach for the new one, before she audibly cleared her throat:

"And what do you think you're doing, Mister?"

Instantly, the man froze.

Which, as she had to admit, made the muscles in his back freeze in a very nice state of tautness.

'Never mind that,' she quickly admonished herself.

By the time the patient actually turned around to face her, she was once again fully in charge of her stern expression, even adding a glare to make the man before her think twice about dishing out any outlandish excuses.

Because, frankly, you wouldn't believe how often patients tried to tell their doctors that they were just going to the bathroom, when clearly they intended to march right out of the hospital and say 'goodbye, doctor'.

"Hi doctor," the man before her turned around slowly and with a sheepish grin, before adding a friendly little wave that was clearly meant to show her he was harmless.

Right. And she had just fallen off the turnip truck.

"Let me put that question out to you again: What do you think you are doing with those clothes?" She then pointedly lowered her gaze a bit, "And standing up on your knee, I might add."

"Well, uhm…I was… I guess you could call it 'trying to leave before anyone noticed'?" the man eventually admitted with a soft chuckle.

Honesty. Hmm. Maybe all hope wasn't lost with this guy yet.

"That's what I thought. But since I happen to be your doctor as of five minutes ago, you might see my point in that I am a bit opposed to that particular idea."

"Oh," the man actually seemed to be considering that dilemma for a moment, before he quickly added, "Yes, I can see where that poses a bit of a problem…"

The man was clearly embarrassed at having been caught. But just as clearly he was also trying to get her to … smile?

At least he was looking at her with such boyish charm, that she was beginning to wonder if she actually had the right to keep this man from doing anything he wanted to do.

'Whoa, Julie. You got a job to do here. And that job includes putting this man back into bed, now.'

So.

"I may be willing to take that smile of yours as a sufficient apology for your attempt to hightail it out of my patients' roster," she conceded, but then fixed him with a pointed look, "but how about we get you back into that bed for now, so I can check on your leg?"

With a sheepish grin, the man actually managed to sit down on the bed again, before she had even gotten across the room. Seeing up-close that he had pretty much shredded the paper-shirt in his attempt to get it off, she decided to split the difference with him and help him into his new shirt for now. The jeans, however, she moved on over to the far side of the room. He wouldn't need them anytime soon, not with that knee. He would just have to make do with the paper gown for now.

Once he was settled back on the bed, she proceeded by checking his knee. Almost instantly she could see for herself the numerous points of evidence that proved this man was certainly no stranger to injuries. Scarred cuts, old surgical scars…and _bullet_ scars?

"Jesu-"

She couldn't keep from gasping in surprise as she fully took in the road map that was his left leg.

"Yeah, I know…," the man said softly, actually sounding apologetic for her having to see all these scars. It had to be scary for someone who wasn't used to it - even if that someone was a doctor.

She tried to direct her mind back to her work, putting on her professional attitude in an awkward attempt to cover her sudden sympathy for this man.

"Can, uhm…can you move your leg a little, bend the knee at all?"

The second the words were out, however, she realized that her question was pretty much redundant – heck, she had _seen_ him move his knee not two minutes ago. Not that she knew how he had done that. He should have been unable to even put any weight on it. But clearly, that hadn't stopped him.

Also, instead of answering her question as she expected, he was now simply cocking his head to one side in an obvious gesture of 'well, what do ya think?'.

Who on earth was this guy?

She was starting to feel like he was seeing right through her every thought, as if he just _knew_ that she was actually considering letting him have his wish of being discharged early.

Well, maybe not today. But if he kept looking at her with that smile of his, there was the distinct possibility that she would cave in as early as tomorrow.

'Okay, time to take to the high ground, girl, before this guy starts to think he's actually winning the battle.'

She gave the leg a last once-over, before she put the blanket back on top to make him more comfortable.

"I'll make you a deal, Mister…Hunt?" she glanced briefly at the brace on his wrist to make sure she had the name right.

The instant she felt his eyes fully focus on her, clearly intent on hearing what she was gonna say, it almost made her falter. For a second she was actually doubting her own sanity at what she was about to do – but then she took her heart in her hands:

"If you promise me to stay out of those jeans over there for at least today and tomorrow morning, I'll come back tomorrow at the beginning of my shift and I'll check out that knee of yours again."

She watched him closely to see his reaction to her words. To her surprise, he was now really listening to her attentively, the mischievousness in his eyes having been replaced by a look of mutual respect, as she continued.

"– and if… _if_ I see tomorrow that you are still moving as gracefully as you did when I walked in here just now, " she saw him flinch at the memory of having been caught red-handed, "then I will think about signing those papers you got already hidden there in your patient's drawer."

The man's eyes held hers for another moment longer, daring to call her bluff, but then his gaze flickered to the closed bedside drawer for a half-second. As he looked back at her, he was clearly surprised to see her smile confidently back at him, after she had obviously guessed correctly at his preparations to sign himself out, all the way down to the 'expedited discharge papers' if necessary.

'Surprised' was one way of describing his reaction. 'Impressed' was another, perhaps more accurate one. Apparently, this man wasn't used to being outdone like that.

'He's probably wondering now what to make of me,' she thought.

And as she took in the newly-assessing look in his eyes, she wondered what else he might be thinking. Because, frankly, she was thinking a lot of things right at this moment.

One of them being the fact that she was actually starting to find this man… witty.

Friendly.

Handsome.

Okay, and let's add sexy.

And then, remembering something else she had been thinking about not too long ago, she suddenly had the perfect idea.

So, with a challenging smile at the man in the bed, she asked him outright, before her nerves could leave her:

"Would you care for some really bad hospital coffee, by any chance?"

Never would she have imagined that he would actually say yes.

First, to the coffee.

And two months later, to their engagement.

Just like, when they had gotten married two weeks after that, she never would have imagined that it would change her entire life in the way that it had.

And on that fateful day when he had told her everything, _truly_ everything about himself, at first she also hadn't thought about what it would mean for them … and for her.

But as she saw him that one final time in Seattle, looking across the harbour at her with a longing in his eyes that almost made her sob, she knew one thing for sure:

No matter how much she would have to forget about her past in order to live this new life, she would never forget the day she had met one Ethan Hunt, her patient 11.

And even if she would never see him again, she would remember his smile for the rest of her life.

-o-

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

-o-

_P.S. That little button down below is calling out to you….can you hear it? It's calling 'please, hit me… with feedback' ;)_


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